was out on my 05 883L on saturday when i had to really slam on my brakes hard. i was probially going about 50-60 mph. when i stepped on the brakes my *** end kicked out to my right and i hard to do some maneuvering to keep it on the wheels. my question you you all is, is there anything i can do to make the bike a little more stable for those sudden stop situations? any suggestion and advice is greatly appreciated.

 

Learn to use your front brake as well. But when you have to slam on the rear, it will always act like that. Think about how it was on a bicycle when you were a kid and slammed the brakes on. It's the same principal.

 

I had the same problem at first, but now I just use mostly front brake. I always use the rear as well, but focused my attention to making sure I used front brake with the rear helping, not the other way around.

 

+1 learn to use that front brake.
you are lucky not to high side it !!

 

You need to learn proper use of both brakes and how to stop the skid.

 

Ok take the advice of others already said. And if you find yourself locking up your back brake its best to keep it locked up and come to a stop. While controlling the bike if you lock it up and let it loose again you have a good chance of high siding

Best advice i can give you is find a big open parking lot and learn and get familer with both your brakes.

Learning how hard you can apply that back break before it locks and learning how to use the front brake with out to much front brake and the back brake with out locking it up is your best bet. 70% of your braking comes from the front no need to lock the back up just apply it firm and gradually.

Like said practice in a parking lot run the bike up to 15 or 20mph and stop using both brakes until you perfect it find a line to judge your stops as u get better you should be stopping closer to the line when you start you will be a ways away from it and then use that in your daily rides and get used to both brakes.

 

Learn to think of the rear brake pedal as a hill holder or lay your bike down device. It takes a while to get out of the cager habit of stabbing the brake in an emergency, but locking up your rear brake is exactly what you don't want to do in an emergency. The front brake will do the job. Learn to consciously use it, practice stopping short once in a while. You'll be impressed at just how hard you really can brake.

Low speed sand and gravel is another matter.

And keep the shiny side up.

 

yup- lucky that you kept the rubber down...
slowing should be front brake with a little rear and downshift
you dont want to lock up either brake-
a nice big empty parking lot is a good place to learn how to stop- or better than that would be the motorcycle safety course.

 

all Harleys seem to lock up the rear fairly easily. A solution to this problem was applied by Italian maker Moto Guzzi 35 years ago and they still use it on some models. They link one front disc with the rear so that when you overpower the pedal you get dual brake action with less to none chance of locking up either wheel. The linked system is also in use for many years by Honda and others.

A UScompany is now studying how to retrofit many HD models with dual front discs with linked brakes.

The linked system is not quite right for single front disc bikes.

I have ridden many miles on linked brake bikes and like them much. In anything like a panic stop, nearly everyone will plunge down too hard on the rear pedal, and slew sideways as a result. Just MO.

 

front brakes are supposed to be 70% of your braking power and the rear the other 30%